Whistle-blowing was punished by police, suit says

A 25-year veteran of the Newport Beach Police Department is suing the city and his superiors, saying he has been turned down for promotions and deprived of awards because of his long history of reporting misconduct by fellow officers and because they think he is gay.

Sgt. Neil Harvey said he had been labeled a troublemaker for initiating investigations against colleagues throughout his career. He also said he had been repeatedly asked by Police Chief Bob McDonell about his marital status and was discouraged by a captain from buying a home in Laguna Beach because it might reinforce the perception that he was homosexual.

“Harvey has been the subject of ongoing rumors, statements, comments and insults regarding his perceived sexual orientation,” according to the 28-page lawsuit filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court. He is seeking to recover lost earnings, damages for pain and suffering and severe emotional distress, and attorney fees and other legal costs.

Harvey referred questions to his attorneys, who did not return calls Tuesday.

McDonell also was not available for comment, and a department spokesman referred calls to the city manager’s office.

City Manager Homer Bludau denied wrongdoing, saying Harvey had made similar claims in administrative complaints filed with the city. An independent investigator hired by the city spent “a good part of a year” looking into the allegations and “found there wasn’t any justification” for them,” Bludau said.

“We will vigorously defend the lawsuit, and we don’t think we did anything wrong in terms of our treatment of Neil Harvey,” Bludau said.

Harvey, who was hired by the department in 1982, has initiated complaints against at least seven other officers for allegations including inappropriate language, petty theft and falsifying police reports, according to his lawsuit. Five of the officers were terminated or resigned subsequent to internal investigations, the lawsuit says.

In one of the cases, Harvey reported an officer for falsifying the arrest report of several juveniles in 1991. The investigation led to dismissal of the charges against the juveniles. The officer has since been promoted to lieutenant, and according to Harvey is among those who is now retaliating against him.

Another unnamed lieutenant, while serving as Harvey’s supervisor in the Detective Services unit, has failed to provide performance evaluations for Harvey, as required, and solicited detectives working under Harvey for negative information, the lawsuit says. One of these detectives warned Harvey to “watch your back. He’s ... gunning for you,” the lawsuit says.

In 2003, Harvey alleges, this same lieutenant wrote to the department awards committee asking that Harvey and officers assigned to him not be awarded the Medal of Valor for rescuing a bound, gagged and beaten woman from her home, which was set on fire and burned to the ground. The department failed to nominate him for his work on two unrelated cases, the lawsuit says.

Over the last two years, Harvey alleges, he has been passed over for promotion to lieutenant despite having more experience and formal education than other candidates.

He was told last year that “evaluation documents” that have not been provided to him describe him as “not rowing in the same direction,” disruptive and in need of additional field experience.

Harvey alleges in his lawsuit that McDonell never promoted a “single, never-married person” or anyone perceived to be gay during his 14 years as Newport police chief and that all seven candidates recently promoted by McDonell were either recently married, remarried or soon to be engaged.

“McDonell has demonstrated a clear preference for married supervisors,” the lawsuit says. “McDonell previously repeatedly questioned Harvey about Harvey’s marital status.”

christine.hanley@latimes.com